SYRIA: Arab League Summit's bitter aftertaste

The Arab League Summit ended over the weekend in the Syrian capital of Damascus with no breakthroughs, as expected, on the various political crises of the region.

The main news that came out of this annual meeting of Arab leaders was the absence of several heads of state. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, among other countries, sent low-ranking officials to the conference because, in their eyes, Damascus was blocking the selection of a president in Lebanon, which sent no one to the conference.

EGYPT: Something quiet?

The desert dust had blown away and the pyramids sharpened beyond the skyline. The air was brisk and clear; the children were out, racing amid bushes and flowers. There was abandon in their voices, perhaps they felt spring slipping closer to summer, or maybe it was the freedom of being unleashed beneath the stars. I listened to these neighborhood kids as the TV played in the background: killing in Gaza, uncertainty in Lebanon, warships in the Persian Gulf, bloodshed in Baghdad, bread lines in Cairo, not too far from where the children played.

I didn't feel like blogging about any of that; the same images would be there tomorrow, the next day. Why not write something quiet? I turned off the TV and opened wide the window. In a region so accustomed to breathtaking hostility, it's nice to let in other sounds: the creak of a swing, the laughter of a child, a mother's call to come home.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

ISRAEL: A day of protests

Extra police deployed throughout Israel and the West Bank Sunday as Palestinians marked the annual protest known as Land Day.

Thousands of demonstrators turned out in several cities to decry what they say is the ongoing Israeli confiscation of Palestinian land and homes.

In the northern Arab town of Sakhnin a vigil marked the first Land Day in 1976 when Israeli police killed six protesters.

A 2,000-strong march took place Saturday in Jaffa — a coastal Arab city that has become a focal point for tense land disputes. Rights groups there are protesting eviction and demolition orders on hundreds of homes on the grounds of construction violations.

Dov Khenin, a leftist Israeli Knesset member, said the event serves as an annual reminder of the plight of Palestinian communities deep inside Israel.

"Land Day is more relevant than ever,” he said.  “The entire Israeli public should assist the Arab community in their struggle for equality in their homeland."

Israeli troops used tear gas to disperse a protest near Nablus, but there were no serious injuries reported.

— Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Photo: Palestinian children stage a sit-in to mark "Land Day" at the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain Al-Hilweh near the southern Lebanese coastal city of Sidon, on Monday. Land Day commemorates the killing of six Israeli-Arabs during a 1976 protest against Israeli land confiscations. Credit: MAHMOUD ZAYAT/AFP/Getty Images

IRAQ: Sadr's statement calling for end to violence

Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr called for an end to the ongoing clashes between the government and his Mahdi Army militia on Sunday. Sadr made his statement after megotiatioms with representatives from the government's ruling Shiite coalition. 

The pledge calls for his men to stop fighting, but demands the Iraqi security forces stop targeting his supporters and release all of his followers who have been detained in Iraqi jails. Even after his statement was released, fighting continued in some parts of Baghdad and the southern port of Basra between his supporters and Iraqi police and army. Sadr's statement is below:

IRAQ: Hard times in Sadr-land

As cleric Muqtada Sadr called Sunday for his supporters to end their fighting with the government across Iraq, horrible accounts have emerged of civilian suffering in neighborhoods in Basra and Baghdad.

One man from Shaab in eastern Baghdad said he watched Wednesday night as Mahdi Army fighters closed off streets and burned tires in his neighborhood. U.S. jets and choppers roared overhead. In the evening, an Iraqi soccer game was on TV; people went inside to watch Iraq play Qatar. It was then that fighters set up their mortar tubes a hundred meters from one home. Before they could fire off a round, a U.S. helicopter shot off a rocket and an explosion ripped the area.

There were seven or eight burned, bleeding bodies lying on the street. Fighters came after two or three hours and lifted the dead militiamen, some of whom were probably teenagers. The blast had shattered windows and sent shrapnel flying, injuring a 6-year-old girl.

The girl's father stood on the street and cursed the Mahdi Army. He shouted that he had never wanted to get involved in the violence. Some friends told him to be quiet, that he shouldn't let anyone hear him talking that way. Eventually they led him inside his damaged house.

— A Times employee in Baghdad

Photo: An Iraqi woman weeps over a coffin  at a hospital in the Sadr City district following the death of a relative who was killed during clashes between Mahdi Army militiamen and Iraqi and U.S forces on March 30, 2008 in Baghdad. Credit: Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images

IRAQ: Expect the unexpected

If someone had told me a few months ago that Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods would be safer than Shiite areas, I would have thought this was madness. Sectarian fighting had driven most Sunnis, including my family and me, out of their homes.

One of my colleagues wrote about his own home being taken over a little over a year ago.

But things gradually improved over the fall and winter, so 18 months after I had moved my family to Syria and moved myself into the Los Angeles Times bureau, I decided my family could return. I was both excited and terrified. I needed just one reason to cancel the plan. But everyone supported it.

"It's safer now, and it has always been safer for women on the streets. They aren't targeted like men," a colleague told me. "Just make sure you don't make a routine out of going home every day."

Of course, home is not the place where my family once lived. That area remains volatile. So I decided to search for a house to rent in a nice middle-class neighborhood inhabited by Sunnis and Shiites, with a Sunni and a Shiite mosque peacefully coexisting on the same block.

My mother and father came back from Syria first. My wife and two young children followed about a month later.

EGYPT: A battle over female circumcision

Islamists and conservative clerics are fighting proposed legislation in the Egyptian parliament that would criminalize female circumcision and raise the minimum age of when a girl can marry. The Islamists view the bill as an affront to Sharia law. 

The legislation drafted by the government-backed National Council for Motherhood and Childhood would impose a prison sentence of as long as two years and a maximum fine of 5,000 Egyptian pounds, or about $1,000. The proposal would raise the minimum age of marriage from 16 to 18. The bill has been met with a storm of anger by a number of delegates from both the majority and the Islamist opposition led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Opponents say the new restrictions are an attempt by the government to impose a Western agenda on an Islamic society. Some clerics, in opposing the bill, state that Islamic Sharia law condones female circumcision and imposes no minimum age of marriage. "Religion does not prohibit or criminalize female circumcision," prominent Islamic scholar Mustafa al-Shaka said to the local press this week.

Islamic scholars have been divided over the religious validity of female circumcision. One camp holds that Islam opposes it, while the other argues that this procedure, in which parts of the female genitals are removed, is necessary to tame a woman's sexual desires and ensure decency.

The bill's architects hold that there is a national consensus on the criminalization of female circumcision. "Nobody can deny that the Egyptian society resents the negative health effects caused by [female] circumcision," said Moushira Khattab, secretary-general of the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood. "Thus, the punishment of those who conduct that practice is a must."    

Female circumcision remains a widespread practice in Egypt, despite having been illegal for years. About 70% of Egyptian girls are believed to be victims of the practice. Last summer, the death of a 12-year-old girl in Upper Egypt in a clinic where she was undergoing the procedure reignited calls to impose harsher penalties on practitioners of the surgery.

— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

IRAN: A distress signal via Facebook

Amid the notifications prodding me to become a vampire or a zombie and one-line shout-outs from friends around the world, the plea for help on the social networking website Facebook stood out starkly.

The message, written in all capitals to underscore its urgency, came from Pooya Dayanim, an Iranian American living in the Los Angeles area:

TURKISH AUTHORITIES HAVE ARRESTED AMIR-FARSHAD EBRAHIMI, A PROMINENT GERMAN-BASED IRANIAN JOURNALIST ON CHARGES THAT HE COLLABORATED WITH THE FBI IN THE FLIGHT OF A PROMINENT IRANIAN OFFICIAL LAST YEAR. TURKISH AUTHORITIES HAVE ADVISED MR. EBRAHIMI THAT IN ORDER TO AVOID ANOTHER SIMILAR INCIDENT THEY ARE DEPORTING HIM IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS BACK TO IRAN WHERE HE WILL SURELY BE TORTURED AND EXECUTED.

IRAQ: Continuing violence

Reports about the fighting between Shiite Muslim militiamen and Iraqi and U.S. forces have focused on Baghdad and Basra, but violence is not confined to those areas. Here is a snapshot of dispatches received from Los Angeles Times correspondents Saturday that didn't make it into the latest story, but which illustrate the spiraling unrest in the country:

• In Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, police reported fighting between members of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and American and Iraqi forces. Police have reported more than 40 people killed in the city since violence flared Tuesday;
• Police commandos said they had raided the villages of Hamza and Hashimiya, about 75 miles south of Baghdad, and detained 62 Mahdi Army members. The commandos then raided a Sadr office in the city of Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, and detained two more people;
• Fighting between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi army south of Hillah left six Iraqi soldiers dead, according to police commandos;
• The provincial government of Babil, of which Hillah is the capital, lifted a curfew for three hours Saturday afternoon so residents could stock up on food and supplies. The curfew will be eased further Sunday, allowing residents to go out from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.;
• Police said seven mortar shells landed near the U.S. Embassy annex in Hillah on Saturday. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
• Reuters news agency quoted government officials as saying they had killed 120 fighters in Basra in the last five days. And in Baghdad, where a 24-hour curfew has been extended indefinitely,
• The Associated Press reports that U.S. government employees living inside the Green Zone have been ordered to use only armored vehicles to drive in the enclave, and to sleep in reinforced structures rather than the flimsy trailers in which many of them live. This follows repeated rocket and mortar shell strikes on the Green Zone, which have killed at least two Americans in the past week.

— Times correspondents in Iraq

Photo: Plumes of thick black smoke rise as helicopters patrol the area in central Baghdad's Green Zone after a rocket attack  Credit: FALEH KHEIBER/EPA

MIDDLE EAST: Jitters as Dutch movie 'Fitna' is released

Will the world witness soon another wave of angry Muslim protests?

The release on the Internet Thursday evening of a highly controversial Dutch film asserting links between Islam and terrorism raised fears of renewed riots, similar to those sparked in 2006 by the publication of derisive Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

So far, according to Los Angeles Times correspondent Geraldine Baum in Paris, no violence was recorded related to the film, at least not in Holland:

"They were all disgusted by the film, but so far there isn't a big explosion," said [Dutch] police spokesman Arnold Aben. "In fact, it's quieter than usual here today. Sort of like a holiday."

The 15-minute film "Fitna," which in Arabic means strife, was made by an extreme right-wing Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders. The movie intersperses verses from Islam's holy book, the Koran, and inflammatory sermons by Muslim clerics, along with sensational images of terrorist attacks, including the 2001 attack against the World Trade Center in New York.

IRAQ: Not quite the surrender Maliki had in mind

It appears that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's ultimatum to Shiite Muslim militiamen to surrender to the Iraqi government might not be working precisely as he had intended.

When nobody had turned up by Friday, Maliki gave members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia 10 more days to turn in their weapons and renounce violence.

Instead, about 40 members of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army and National Police offered to surrender their AK-47s and other weapons this morning to Sadr's representatives in the cleric's east Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.

One of the police officers told journalists assembled at Sadr's office that he was heeding a call by an Iraqi cleric based in Iran, Ayatollah Fadhil Maliki, to stop fighting fellow Muslims.

"We came here to tell our brothers, the followers of Sadr, that we will not be against you," said the officer, who was dressed in civilian clothes and had his face covered with a scarf and dark sunglasses.

IRAQ: Politicians a no-show in latest crisis

With Iraqi government troops struggling to quell Shiite Muslim militiamen, the Sunni speaker of parliament summoned legislators to an emergency session. But most lawmakers failed to show up.

Friday’s session, which took place amid rocket and mortar fire, highlighted how persistent divisions between Iraqi political factions continue to stymie progress.

Those present agreed that a committee should be formed to find a negotiated solution to the fighting, which has claimed more than 150 lives.

“It is our duty as a legislative and oversight authority to intervene in order to salvage the situation,” parliament speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani told the Arabic-language satellite news station, Al Arabiya.

ISRAEL: Pollard makes more headlines

Update on a previous post:

The buzz about Jonathan Pollard, the imprisoned former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, continues in Israel.  Israeli state comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, requested by the appropriate Knesset committee to examine Israel's actions toward Pollard's release, said he was surprised to wake up to headlines this week quoting unnamed security sources warning that this would undermine efforts to release him. Hinting at an ongoing dispute between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the comptroller, the chairman of the Knesset committee, MK Zevulun Orlev, expressed his regret that Olmert was engaging in an irresponsible "ugly spin" at Pollard's expense.

Either way, Pollard's wife, Esther, asked incredulously "what efforts" exactly were being made for her husband's release, and promptly answered that there were none. The whole "hysteria" was all about money, she told Israel Radio this week. The government says it has given the Pollards constant support -- "but this is a complete lie" she said.

Esther Pollard said she was told flat out by a source close to President Bush this week that "there is only one person who can release your husband, and that's Bush. And there's only one person who needs to request his release, and that's Ehud Olmert." And Olmert, she says the source told her, "doesn't want your husband."

Some believe an aggressive attitude is the only way to go; yet others fear that the constant rumor mill will undermine quiet hopes that the United States will consent to release Pollard as a gesture to Israel. 

— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

IRAQ: Guns for money

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's hopes of forcing Shiite militiamen to hand in their weapons has fallen flat, so he has extended a disarmament deadline and sweetened the deal by offering money in exchange for guns.

A spokesman for the government's Interior Ministry, Abdul Kareem Khalaf, acknowledged today that not a single weapon had been turned in since Maliki ordered the disarmament Wednesday and gave fighters a three-day deadline. The call came as Shiite Muslim militias battled Iraqi security forces in the aftermath of Maliki's crackdown on militiamen. The offensive was launched Tuesday in the southern city of Basra and has since spread to Shiite strongholds across Iraq.

Khalaf said Maliki had extended the deadline until April 8 and that a "financial reward" awaits militiamen who comply. There's no word on how much this reward could be. Maliki has said fighters who disarm must also sign a pledge to refrain from future militia activities and follow Iraqi law.

If it sounds familiar, that's because this is similar to the model in use by U.S. forces as they work to keep former insurgents from resuming anti-U.S. activities. That program, launched in late 2006, has been aimed mainly at Sunni Muslims who once supported the insurgency but who, for a variety of reasons, have opted out of the fight.

LEBANON: Iran revolution film 'Persepolis' unbanned

So finally, freedom of expression triumphed in Lebanon over the archaic practice of censorship.

Lebanese authorities revoked an earlier decision to ban an animated film that was regarded by some Shiite clerics here as "offensive to Iran and Islam."

The film in question is "Persepolis," an internationally acclaimed animated feature that was released last year in the United States and Europe. It is based on an autobiographical graphic novel series about a young girl trying to find her way in restrictive Iran after its 1979 Islamic revolution.

The earlier ban imposed by an official security body in the country set off an outcry in Lebanese intellectual and political circles, who saw the move as outrageous. Condemning the ban of cultural and artistic works in the country, a Lebanese journalist wrote on his From Beirut to the Beltway blog: "I know that the heart of every culture-loving Lebanese breaks with every ban."

Persepolis will be released in theaters in Beirut starting May 3, according to the film's distributor.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: A Lebanese man holds a copy of the animated film "Persepolis" in Beirut. Credit: Joseph Barrak /  AFP / Getty Images

IRAQ: A love affair with an iconic American car

In the southern city of Basra, the Iraqi love affair with an iconic American car goes back long before U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003.

Chevrolet minibuses dating back to the late 1950s remain the transportation of choice for many city dwellers.

But these buses don’t look anything like the vehicles you see in the United States. The Iraqi companies that distributed Chevys all those years ago only imported the chassis. The body and seats were made locally out of wood.

IRAQ: Casualties of war

Three Iraqi children are among seven civilians killed in a recent U.S. air strike, the latest such mistake to occur on the battlefield. A military statement said Wednesday's incident in Tikrit, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, also left three women and a man dead. It added that five people it identified as "terrorists" also were killed.

"Multi-National Force - Iraq sincerely regrets when there are civilian casualties during our operations to rid Iraq of terrorism," said Navy Capt. Vic Beck, a U.S. military spokesman.

Nobody knows how many Iraqi civilians or U.S.-allied security forces have been killed in such friendly fire incidents, which have been reported widely in the Los Angeles Times. The teenage son of a Times staff member was killed last April, and earlier this month we told the tale of Batul Abdul Hussein, whose son, an Iraqi police officer, was killed when U.S. forces mistook his patrol for insurgents.

Photo: Batul Abdul Hussein looks at a photograph of her son, Wesam Saleh, who was killed in a friendly fire incident involving U.S. forces in February 2007. (Saad Khalaf)

SYRIA: The Seinfeld summit

The Egyptians are sending a low-ranking official. The Saudis, too, are sending a nobody, while the Lebanese are actually sending nobody.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki of Iraq may have to struggle to wrest himself from his troubles, while the archipelago nation of Comoros, undergoing a coup d'etat, is  probably in no position to send anyone to the Arab League Summit, where Arab heads of state or their delegates are scheduled to meet this weekend to talk about...well, that's a good question.

Cynics will cackle that the Arab League summits rarely accomplish anything. Previous summits have focused on the situation in Iraq or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

But so far about only thing this year's summit in Damascus has been mostly about is who is attending and who is blowing it off.

(Let's not forget the biggest issue: who's actually going to pick up the tab.)

Today, as foreign ministers of the Arab states met, the hundreds of journallists who've descended upon Damascus from around the world were left to interview each other at the international press center.

I have already fielded two requests for interviews. While waiting for news to break, I called up a source in Damascus for an interview.

With my cellphone cradled between my chin and shoulder, I began taking notes. Suddenly three photojournalists descended on me and began clicking away.

Apparently, I was the only journalist at the press center actually working.

— Borzou Daragahi in Damascus

Photo: Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa speaks to a journalist after the meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Damascus on March 27. Credit: LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

ISRAEL: Let there be dark!

Thursday night, Tel Aviv was the first city of 24 around the world to turn off electric lights for one hour as part of the global earth hour effort to raise awareness about the need to act against global warming.  The venture was kicked off atop the city's Azrieli skyscraper by, among others, President Shimon Peres, who has embraced greenism and is promoting many environmental efforts. Israel should be at the front of global environmental campaigns, he said: "Everyone's beginning to understand that this is not a children's game."

At 8 p.m. sharp, businesses and citizens lost their lights for one hour in Israel's 24/7 city. Mayor Ron Huldai presided over the countdown until the Tel Aviv municipality building behind him went black. During the evening, about 40,000 people gathered in Rabin Square, where an Israeli band was giving a concert -- unplugged, of course. Putting to good use two local resources -- energetic Israelis and falafel -- the energy needed for stage lighting and sound came entirely from alternative sources. First, energy was generated by troops of peddling cyclists. Second, a generator supplied power with bio-diesel produced from distilled falafel oil. Elsewhere in town, restaurant patrons dined by candlelight and shoppers tried on clothes in semi-dark (which could have its own advantages). The electric company, monitoring things from its darkened situation-room, reported a satisfying cut in consumption for the hour and the Tel Aviv municipality declared the event a success.

Israel also moved the clock forward Thurday night, beginning the 191 days of daylight savings time that's said to save Israeli households up to 25 million NIS in electricity expenses.

For all its sun, Israel's stretch is among the shorter ones, somewhere between the 238 days in the United States and Egypt's 154. Nearly every year involves a public debate between those advocating a longer period and the religious public, asking that the clock be set back before Yom Kippur, easing some of the strain of fasting, in which every hour counts. In the meanwhile, Israelis will have to wait for Oct. 5 to make up that lost hour of sleep.

— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

Photos: Top, President Shimon Peres switches off the Azrieli Towers lights. Below, a concert outside the Tel Aviv municipality building is powered by cyclists.

Credits: Jessica Frykman/Israel Sun Photo

EGYPT: A killing and rage in the Suez

The killing of a man by a bullet to the chest has led to Egyptian outrage against the United States. Egyptian officials said Mohammed Fouad, a 27-year-old father of two, was shot by the crew of the Global Patriot, a transport ship under contract for the U.S. military, near the Suez Canal. Fouad sold cigarettes and candy to freighters and oil tankers from a small boat he shared with several other men.

He was sailing home Monday when the Global Patriot crew members fired warning shots to chase away Fouad's craft. U.S. vessels have been on alert since the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen by two suicide bombers on a motorboat. The U.S. Navy is investigating Fouad's death. A statement released by the American Embassy said: "It appears that an Egyptian in the boat was killed by one of the warning shots." (Read the L.A. Times story.)

Newspaper headlines and members of the Egyptian Parliament suggest the man's death is a sign of American hubris and carelessness in the region. The government of President Hosni Mubarak receives about $2 billion a year in U.S. aid, but that money has bought little respect in a country that often feels manipulated by a greater power.

Al-Ahram newspaper reported that a number of parliament members criticized the Mubarak government for turning a blind eye to the tragedy so as not to embarrass an important ally. Yosri Mohammed, a writer for the independent Al-Dostour newspaper, criticized the government for "standing by the aggressor against the victim."

Those who fired "the shots must be brought to justice," Abbas Abdel Aziz Abbas, a member of parliament's Muslim Brotherhood faction, told the Daily News Egypt. "I realize the American ambassador made an official apology to the Egyptian people last night, but an apology is not enough. ... If this was an Egyptian ship in American waters that had shot and killed an American citizen, by mistake or otherwise, what would America do?"

The commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet, Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, said: "We are greatly saddened by the events that apparently resulted in this accidental death. ... We will do our utmost to take care of the family of the deceased."

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Saada Abdel Al, center holds her two children Rahma, 4, left and Fouad, 8 months along with a photo of her slain husband Mohammed Fouad, 27 who is claimed by his family to have been shot and killed by an American cargo ship passing the Suez Canal. Credit: Nasser Nasser/Assoociated Press
   

IRAQ: No song for a tyrant

The pop-disco group Boney M's 1978 recording of "Rivers of Babylon" was a hit in the U.S., Europe and some Arab countries.

It's adapted from Psalm 137 in the Bible and speaks of longing for Zion and freedom.

Saddam Hussein took offense and banned the song in his captive country.

Tariq abd Wahab Jasim was in Hussein's army and had to obey his commands. Now Hussein's gone and Jasim is a major-general in the new Iraqi army and is teamed with the U.S. Marines in the western part of Al Anbar province.

Each night, Jasim and his military advisor, Marine Col. Robert Castellvi, get together to discuss military matters and share their love for music from the 1970s. One of Jasim's favorites is "Rivers of Babylon."

"He would kill me if he knew I was singing this," Jasim says of the deposed tyrant before launching into a verse or two:

"When the wicked carried us away in captivity

Required from us a song

Now how shall we sing the Lord's song

In a strange land."

— Tony Perry in Habbaniya

Photo: The group Boney M, in 1978. Credit: L.A. Times files.

IRAQ: No seat belts required

Dividing one's time between Iraq and the United States means viewing the world through two vastly different prisms: the Iraqi one and the American one. This was driven home during a recent encounter with an aspiring foreign correspondent at Columbia University in New York.

The student asked a good question: How do foreigners avoid drawing attention to themselves while working in Baghdad? The answer: Do as the Iraqis do. For instance, don't wear seat belts, because Iraqis don't.

The aspiring correspondent had a follow-up question: Why don't Iraqis wear seat belts?

I told him the truth: I didn't know, but in a country where nobody wants to look "different,"  wearing seat belts simply was not an option. The student looked perturbed. Couldn't Iraqis — and foreigners — just wear lap belts so that others would not notice they were strapped in, he said? This way, they could be safe and go unnoticed.

I pointed out that nowadays, cars only come with shoulder straps, not lap belts.

What about sliding the shoulder strap down to sit across the lap, to be invisible to passersby? he suggested. Other students were beginning to look concerned that this topic could dominate the class session.

I ended the conversation by saying that in a country plagued by decades of war and political turmoil, most Iraqis probably had things other than traffic safety to worry about. Anyway, being strapped into a car seat could prevent a hasty escape in the event shooting broke out in the midst of a traffic jam, or a bomb went off nearby.

The conversation nagged at me as I returned to Baghdad and sat in the passenger seat of a taxi that sped away from the airport terminal at 85 mph. Later, I asked one of our staff drivers why Iraqis don't wear seat belts, even though there is a law requiring their use. "Because we don't care," he said, shrugging his shoulders. He added that if someone were seen wearing a belt, others would immediately notice them. "They'd say, 'Who is that person? Why are they so important as to wear a seat belt?'" he said.

The driver acknowledged that he would like to wear a seat belt for safety but would not dare, because of the attention and ridicule that would bring.

Other staffers confirmed this. They explained that even before the current war, seat belts were viewed as wimpish and shunned  by most Iraqis — even the traffic cops assigned to enforce seat belt laws.

One staffer recalled a drive with his father in 2001. His father was a major general in the Iraqi military and was dressed in his uniform. He also was wearing a seat belt. A traffic officer pulled them over, part of a routine highway check. He peered into the window and snickered as he saw the older man strapped in behind the wheel. "Heh heh heh! You're wearing a seat belt!" he said, before sending the seething pair on their way.

— Tina Susman in Baghdad

Photos: The seat is worn but the seat belt is as good as new in this late-'80s sedan in Iraq. An Iraqi driver proves that tough guys don't wear seat belts. Credits: Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: 85 minutes of war

A look at 85 minutes in Iraq today as violence raged in the aftermath of an Iraqi government crackdown on militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. All incidents were reported by Los Angeles Times stringers and based on police sources:

11 a.m.: A roadside bomb explodes in northern Hillah, south of Baghdad, killing two Iraqi police; Clashes are reported between Iraqi Security Forces and militiamen in Kifil, a town south of Hillah;

12 p.m.: A mortar lands near the National Museum in Baghdad, injuring three civilians and an Iraqi policeman; Another hits a street near the Iranian Embassy, but no casualties are reported;

12:05 p.m.: Mortars land in Baghdad's Karada neighborhood, injuring three civilians;

12:10 p.m.: Iraqi Army and U.S. forces clash with militiamen in eastern Baghdad's Baladiyat neighborhood, and one Iraqi civilian is reported killed in cross-fire;

12:20 p.m.: A mortar lands on an Iraqi police checkpoint in eastern Baghdad, injuring one policeman and a civilian;

12:25 p.m.: A car bomb explodes in Karada, killing two civilians and injuring five.

— Times staff writers in Baghdad

Photo: Fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr pose with their weapons. Credit: Haider Al-Assadee / EPA

ISRAEL: Leaving a man behind

It has been 21 months since Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit was abducted by Gaza Strip militants in a cross-border raid.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was forced to respond to accusations that his government wasn’t doing enough to get Shalit back.

“I can only assess the situation according to the success rate—which currently stands at zero,” said the soldier’s father Noam Shalit at a rally.

Olmert later responded at a press briefing that, “I can understand where (the father’s) emotions are coming from,” but swore that the government was “doing its utmost” to secure the soldier’s release.

The retrieval of captured soldiers, living or dead, is a hugely emotional issue in Israeli society. Public opinion has previously supported wildly disproportionate prisoner swaps. In 2004, Israel released 430 Arab prisoners in exchange for a kidnapped Israeli businessman and the bodies of three soldiers.

Abducted June 25, 2006, Shalit’s whereabouts are said to be unknown. But Israeli forces have shown multiple times that they have extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the tiny Gaza Strip, fueling speculation that they know where Shalit is, but can’t attempt a rescue without risking his life.

Shalit’s name pops up regularly in rumors about possible swaps. The most commonly floated scenario involves an exchange for Marwan Barghouti, a popular and charismatic Palestinian leader currently serving multiple life sentences for planning attacks in Israel.

— Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Photo: Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Credit: Israeli Foreign Ministry

LEBANON: Not taking the road to Damascus

Lebanon's political life is on hold these days. And all eyes are now focused on the annual summit of Arab leaders at the end of this week in Damascus. The meeting is expected to extensively discuss the Lebanese conundrum.

But hopes are already low that a miraculous solution will come out of these Arab talks. Late Tuesday night, the Lebanese government decided to boycott the Arab Summit.

IRAQ: The next chapter?

Ongoing violence in Shiite southern Iraq has pitted the grass-roots movement of Muqtada Sadr against the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Dawa party.

Alexandra Zavis' reporting on Basra today provides a look at what could very well be the next stage in the Iraq conflict  where violence is sparked by local power struggles as sides jockey to win October provincial elections.

If 2006 and 2007 saw intense fighting based on Sunni-Shiite divisions, now strife looks to be fueled by a battle for control of local governments.

Beyond southern Iraq, Sunni factions are feuding in western Anbar province. There, a senior tribal leader has warned the national Iraqi Islamic Party that it needs to leave the province. In northern Iraq, Kurds and Arabs are in competition. 

"We are going to see some problems between Shia and Shia and problems among Sunnis and Kurds, especially in Mosul," Sheik Fatih Kashif Ghitaa, the director of the Al-Thaqalayn Center for Strategic Studies, told The Times in December. "This is the price of democracy."

— Ned Parker in Baghdad

Photo : Iraqi soldier sits outside a hospital in Baghdad next to a poster of late Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr Hakim. Credit: Ned Parker / Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: Verbal wars of Shiite clergy

Before clashes erupted in the southern port of Basra early today, there were many hints that tensions between Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia  and the Iraqi government could explode and imperil Sadr's seven-month cease-fire.   

If today's strife turns into a broader conflagration, people might look back at the war of words in sermons last Friday in Shiite mosques as a hint of what was to come.

MIDDLE EAST: Cheney makes Iran bomb allegation

Certainly high oil prices, the state of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Arab-Israeli conflict were high on the agenda of Vice President Dick Cheney's recent tour of the Middle East. But the subject of Iran was never far from the surface of the trip, which is now wrapping up.

Cheney alleged in an interview Monday that Iran was trying to develop weapons-grade uranium, even though international inspectors have never found such evidence.

According to a White House transcript of an interview with ABC's Martha Raddatz, Cheney said:

Obviously, they're also heavily involved in trying to develop nuclear weapons enrichment, the enrichment of uranium to weapons grade levels.

Iran is currently enriching uranium at its plant in Natanz in central Iran. Weapons-grade uranium is enriched or concentrated at 80% or 90%. According to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency report, Iran currently enriches uranium at concentrations of less than 3.8%, which is the amount necessary for creating fuel for a reactor. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful energy production, but the U.S. and other Western countries have cast suspicion.

ISRAEL: Pollard release — hype or hope?

Israeli Cabinet Minister Rafi Eitan said in an interview Monday with the Knesset (parliament) channel that he assumes "we will soon see Pollard in Israel," but that he "could not, would not say when."

Eitan, minister of pensioners' affairs, spent much of his past in the country's security services and had been in charge of the unit that handled Jonathan Jay Pollard at the time the U.S. Navy intelligence analyst was arrested in 1985.

Pollard denied engaging in espionage against the U.S. but admitted to one count of passing classified information to an ally as part of a plea bargain. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pollard's supporters accuse Israel of abandoning him. Indeed, it took 10 years for Israel to officially acknowledge him. They also accuse the U.S. of vengefully keeping him in harsh prison conditions and imposing a heavier sentence than given to all but the most dangerous spies. Their years-long campaign for his release picked up some pace during President Bush's visit to Israel this January, with posters throughout Jerusalem (see picture) and letters, faxes and petitions to the hotel, delegation and even the president himself.

Rafi Eitan has reportedly not set foot on American soil since, for fear of being arrested. Non-grata or not, President Bush shook his hand at a dinner with several Israeli Cabinet ministers in Jerusalem this January.

In 2006, Pollard petitioned Israel's supreme court against Eitan's appointment as minister, accusing him of recklessly recruiting him and ultimately abandoning him to the FBI in order to save his own skin.

The petition was rejected.  Eitan, for his part, says he has never stopped working for Pollard's  release. Refusing to say whether he had brought the matter up with Vice President Cheney during his visit, Eitan just said cryptically that the less said, the better.

— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusaelm

Photo: Bush in unexpected company, between Hamas leader Ismail  Haniyeh and  Hezbollah's  Sheik  Hassan Nasrallah, in a poster on a Jerusalem billboard in January. Credit: Batsheva Sobelman/Los Angeles Times.

EGYPT: Comic book translates Martin Luther King's message

Martin Luther King Jr. has gone Arabic.

A 50-year-old comic book on the civil rights leader's strategy of nonviolence and tolerance is being published in the Arab world by the American Islamic Congress. The book, known as the Montgomery Story, was originally part of King's campaign to end racial discrimination and human rights abuses in America.

His message speaks to reformers in Arab countries today who have been battling political oppression, corruption, torture, jihadists and abuses against women, including genital circumcision. The hope is that King's tactics of nonviolence, which are outlined in the book, will inspire Arab versions of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington.

"Nonviolent activism is needed in the Middle East more than ever," said Dalia Ziada, director of AIC's office in Cairo. "Martin Luther King's legacy offers a powerful alternative to violence, and we hope this new Arabic comic book can inspire young Middle Easterners to take responsible action for reform."

Check it out at www.hamsaweb.org/comic

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo 

IRAQ: Five years on, a different power struggle

With no reliable electricity supply, Baghdad residents go to elaborate lengths to get enough power to light their homes and stay cool through the looming summer.

Zaki Jafar says he spends most of his teacher’s salary on buying and generating extra electricity and has had to take on extra work repairing washing machines to cover the rest of his expenses.

“Electricity is the pillar of everything,” he said.

Jafar spends about $50 a month for five amperes from a shared neighborhood generator, enough to power a refrigerator, lights and a few fans. But the owner only runs the machine for seven hours a day and it frequently breaks down. So Jafar spends another $50 a month on fuel for a small private generator.

He knows that insurgent attacks account for many of the outages and offered up this suggestion to the U.S. and Iraqi governments: “Build a safe zone like the Green Zone and build a power plant inside it.”

Read on to find out why Iraqis can count on only a few hours of power a day, five years after U.S.-led forces invaded.

— Usama Redha and Alexandra Zavis in Baghdad

Photo: A family makes do with light from battery-powered lamps during a recent power outage in Baghdad. Credit: Saad Khalaf / Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: Out of 4,000, one fallen soldier

The 20-vehicle supply convoy was moving west on the road from Baghdad toward Fallouja. The blast hit one of the trucks, killing a U.S. soldier. His body was out of the cab, lying near the roadway. It was early in the conflict, July 16, 2003, before the insurgency raged. He was among the first couple hundred of the 4,000 U.S. troops who would eventually die in Iraq.

IRAQ: 'No place I'd rather be'

Times photographer Rick Loomis writes movingly in today's newspaper and website about the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron Austin and his decision to help carry the mortally wounded Texan off the battlefield rather than take his picture.

I visited the Jolan district of Fallouja this month to see the neighborhood where Austin and other Marines fought valiantly against insurgents in April 2004.

The two sides closed to within 20 meters, lobbing grenades and firing machine guns. For a brief moment the outnumbered Marines were in danger of being overrun.

Austin, 21, a machine gunner, helped evacuate the wounded. With the insurgents pushing ever closer to the Marines' outpost, Austin left his protected position to hurl a grenade.

The grenade struck a bull's-eye, helping to repel the insurgents' assault. In the process Austin was wounded, leading to the desperate attempt to carry him for medical care.

For his bravery, Austin was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. "All the Marines stepped up, and Aaron led the way," Sgt. Maj. Bill Skiles said.

To those who knew Austin, his selflessness was not surprising. The night before he was killed, Austin had led a prayer session asking God to protect his fellow Marines but asking nothing for himself.

"There's no place I'd rather be than here with my Marines," he had told me two days earlier.

The Jolan district is returning to normal these days. Families have returned. Stores and schools are opening. Few signs of the April 2004 battle remain, including the small memorial that his fellow Marines built to honor Austin.

— Tony Perry in Fallouja

Photo: Lance Cpl. Aaron Austin. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps

LEBANON: Seeing the bad moon rising

Wissam Sharaf is not the kind of guy you'd welcome to your neighborhood, or to your city or country, or even the one next door, for that matter.

World-weary at 34, the television journalist is a veteran of conflicts and strife in Pakistan, Liberia and the Darfur region of Sudan. This year he's moving from France to his native Lebanon. And not because he wants to get closer to his family roots.

"Now I want to come to Beirut," Sharaf tells me, smirking. "Because I think it's gonna move."

Dark clouds loom on Lebanon's horizon. In the streets, young men gather weapons. Off the Mediterranean shore, U.S. warships have approached for the first time since the 1980s. The Shiite militia Hezbollah boasts that it has rearmed in preparation for the next round of conflict with Israel.

Click here to read more.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: Lebanese protesters burn tires during a demonstration over power cuts in the southern suburb of Beirut earlier this year. Credit: ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images

EGYPT: Gas to Israel ignites criticism

An Egyptian newspaper columnist has accused his government of selling natural gas to Israel at cut-rate prices. It’s the kind of accusation here that riles passions from alley markets to the halls of parliament.

IRAQ: Personal tales of the fallen

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class John W. Marshall was at the head of a convoy in Iraq when an RPG hit, killing him. The 50-year-old soldier had been a source of wisdom and strength for the men around him.

Capt. Patrick M. Rapicault, 34, was born French but fell in love with the U.S. and joined the Marines. In Iraq, he seemed fearless as he cleared the streets of Anbar province for convoys.

Marine Cpl. Nicholas P. Rapavi, 22, was about to finish his second tour of Iraq and was going to leave the Corps. He wanted to go to college and maybe become a doctor.

They were among the 4,000 U.S. service members killed since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003. Times staff writers share their memories of these and other fallen troops as another grim milestone is reached in the war.

Click here to read about them here.

— Alexandra Zavis in Baghdad

ISRAEL: Easter in the Holy Land

Thousands of religious pilgrims flood into Jerusalem every Easter weekend. This year, one of the more low-key worshippers was Vice-President Dick Cheney, who arrived in Jerusalem Saturday for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

IRAQ: Sleepless in Baghdad

I had finished my work at the office and left for home because I knew the fighting could start at any moment in my neighborhood between the rival Shiite armed groups.

I stopped on my way at a computer repair shop to pick up my PC. When I reached my neighborhood, it was 7:30 pm. The streets were empty with the exception of a few motorcycles.  I spotted some Mahdi Army fighters on foot.

ISRAEL: March Madness and the 'Jewish Jordan'

In honor of the NCAA tournament, we present one blogger's guide to prominant Jews involved in college basketball.

Another blogger muses about the ongoing and sometimes over-reaching search for the next "Jewish Jordan."

And for those who don't already know (we sure didn't) the best Jewish player in the NBA is none other than Lakers guard and former UCLA star Jordan Farmar.

— Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Photo: Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Farmar (center)) is pressured by Sacramento Kings center Mikki Moore (left) and Spencer Hawes during the thrid quarter of the basketball game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on March 9. CreditL AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

EGYPT: A woman's voice equal to a man's

A deputy speaker in the Egyptian Parliament has challenged orthodox Islam by suggesting that a woman’s voice is equal to a man’s.

Zeinab Radwan, who is also a professor of Islamic studies, argues against mainstream interpretation of Sharia law, which holds that in business transactions and legal affairs a man’s testimony is equal to that of two women.

Radwan sparked further outrage in Cairo by suggesting that non-Muslims should have increased rights regarding inheritance of property. Human-rights groups have long criticized Islam for discriminating against non-Muslims.

ISRAEL: An Israeli view of Obama and his pastor

From a new blog by two distinguished Israeli authors comes a commentary by Haim Watzman on Sen. Barack Obama and his former pastor -- a relationship that reminds Watzman of his own mixed feelings about his first rabbi in Israel.

Having moved from America to Israel as a young man 30 years ago, Watzman admired Rabbi Tzefaniah Drori for his dedication to the town of Kiryat Shmonah, a poor community that was the frequent target of Palestinian rockets. But while attending synagogue services, Watzman came to detest the messianic doctrine of Israeli territorial expansion that the rabbi preached.

"People choose religious communities for lots of different reasons," Watzman writes. "So, while I think the politics of Reverend Jeremiah Wright abhorrent, I assumed from the start that many in his church don't hold the same beliefs -- Barack Obama among them. Obama has done the right thing by making this explicit."

Watzman describes himself as a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. "But I admire Obama for having the courage and forthrightness to address the issue of Reverend Wright straight on. ... People may still have reasons for opposing Obama, but his association with Reverend Wright should not be one of them."

Watzman's comment highlights a difference in the way Israelis and Americans view Obama. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, using a panel of experts to rate how "good for Israel" each U.S. presidential candidate would be, says Israelis find more fault with Obama for his willingness to speak to the president of Israel's arch-enemy Iran than with his association with his former pastor.

— Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem

Photo: Democratic Illinois senator and 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke to the National Jewish Democratic Council's Washington conference at Almas Temple last year. Credit: Matthew Cavanaugh / EPA

IRAQ: Where it all started

Marine Staff Sgt. Terrance Gant, 30, of Indianapolis, has been deployed twice to Fallouja.

He was part of the 3rd battalion, 5th regiment when it was a lead unit in the late 2004 battle to liberate the city from insurgent control. Now he's back as the Three-Five is helping in the recovery of the battle-ravaged city.

In a couple of months, the battalion will return to Camp Pendleton. Gant plans to leave the Marine Corps and open a body-building business.

When some Iraqi entrepreneurs decided to start a fitness studio on the main street of Fallouja, the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Christopher Dowling, sent Gant to provide advice. Through an interpreter, Gant and the Iraqis talked about muscle groups and how best to tone your abs and delts.

"They're good to go," Gant said.

For the Marines, the Fallouja strategy has a kind of forward-into-the-past feel. In early 2004, when the Marines first arrived, they had hoped to form youth soccer teams and help in business development. But then a mob killed four Americans and hanged two of the burned corpses from a bridge. President Bush ordered the Marines into the combat.

After two assaults, the insurgents have been routed. Slowly, the U.S. was able to begin the kind of programs it had hoped to initiate four years ago.

The bridge, soon to be renovated, remains as a grisly symbol.  "This is where it all started," Gant said on a recent patrol.

— Tony Perry in Fallouja

Photo: Staff Sgt. Terrance Gant in front of the bridge where the burned bodies were hanged in 2004, leading President Bush to order the Marines to assault insurgent strongholds. Credit: Tony Perry/Los Angeles Times